Drink, drugs and thugs

In August the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) released their latest figures on football hooliganism in English and Welsh football*. The figures showed that, despite the greatly improved situation inside football grounds, there has actually been an increase in football-related violence overall. Patterns have changed, however, and rather than the vicious scenes of rioting fans inside stadia that were commonplace in the 1970s and 1980s almost all the trouble now appears to be taking place well away from football grounds. According to the NCIS, which monitors football hooliganism in England and Wales, the number of arrests for football-related offences went up from 3,138 in 1999/2000 to 3,391 for the last football season - an increase of 8.1 per cent. Of those arrests 85 per cent were as a result of disturbances that took place away from grounds in town centres and railway stations and in the vicinity of pubs.

This apparent increase in football related crime and violence has again sparked a debate about the nature of so called football hooligans. The debate centres on whether it is really a football related problem or in fact part of a culture that already exists in the UK irrespective of any association with football. In answer to her demand of what the FA were going to do about hooligans, a former chief executive of the Football Association once said to Margaret Thatcher: ''When are you going to get your hooligans out of my stadiums?''

Steven Powell of the Football Supporters Association has pointed out that the figures on football violence are actually a reflection of a wider problem in English and Welsh society – a problem of drunken, thuggish behaviour and not necessarily a problem unique and exclusive to football. In a debate on BBC On-line he commented, "You can see the same sort of violence that has become associated with football on a Friday or Saturday night in any town centre and it is something that we as a society have to deal with.''

This is a view shared by many other members of the public. Again to quote from a BBC On-line discussion, "The worst offenders, Newcastle, had 40 arrests all season, out of 1 million fans who attended games. I suspect that more than 40 people are arrested every Saturday night in any medium sized town anywhere in the UK. Rather than hammering the football clubs, perhaps this suggests a slightly wider problem?'' A log of all incidents compiled by the NCIS has actually shown that pubs and drink persist in being a common feature of where and why trouble occurs.

The link between alcohol and football violence is, of course, a complex question. While football fan representatives are keen to distance genuine football fans from the violent drunken behaviour outlined by the NCIS report, they are also keen to point out that there are many contexts in which alcohol and the following of football combine without such ill effects. Many commentators cite the supporters of Ireland, Scotland, and Denmark, for example, as to illustrate how countries with similar alcohol consumption patterns to England do not have the same degree of associated violence. This again reinforces the argument that there are wider issues around the English drinking culture that need to be assessed and better understood. To break this down further, an analysis of the NCIS figures demonstrates that distinct patterns can also be ascertained within regions of England. The north-east comes out strongly from the figures as the area with the most drink related offences. Sunderland and Newcastle football clubs, for example, top the league of most unruly fans. Sunderland had 166 of their fans arrested last season and Newcastle 191. Of those, 48 Newcastle fans were arrested specifically for drink-related offences with 68 from Sunderland. The behaviour of north-east football fans contrasted sharply with that of their London counterparts where Arsenal only had seven fans arrested for drink-related offences, followed by Charlton Athletic with six. Overall, Leicester City has the best record with only two fans arrested last season for drink-related offences. So further analysis and research is required to ascertain precisely what the figures say about the English, if not British, drinking culture and within that what the indications are for regional variation.

The problem of football-drink related hooliganism also illustrates the significance of the availability of alcohol in exacerbating violent behaviour. The modern phenomenon of evening kick-offs, designed to accommodate television coverage, has led to increased opportunities to drink before games. Peter Hilton, chief superintendent of the British Transport police said: "Different kick-off times throughout the week have made policing operations more costly and challenging.football is no longer about 3pm kick-offs on Saturday afternoons.

Television is dictating kick-off times and fans are taking days off in the week, having a drink all day and then travelling to matches. Much of the trouble is away from stadiums so we need more resources from football, which is making money from television.'' In Scotland the Association of Scottish Police Superintendents (ASPS) has expressed extreme concern over later kick-off times. The ASPS Chief Superintendent Allan Shanks said such moves could lead to an increase in city centre violence, ''supporters will have longer to consume alcohol before the kick-off and when they come out of the ground at about 19.30 there is the potential for them to frequent already busy pubs and clubs.'' He further commented, ''we are just concerned that perhaps the commercial interests have taken precedence here''.

Overall the NCIS figures make worrying reading for both the football authorities, for whom there is still the concern that a criminal violent element is associating itself with the game, and for wider authorities, including the police, for whom these figures demonstrate that drink related violence and criminality still pose a threat. They also serve as a timely reminder to the government with its widespread relaxation of licensing laws in England and Wales that drunken, aggressive, and violent behaviour in town centres still persists and that the availability of increased opportunities to drink alcohol fuels that problem rather than diminishes it.